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Monday, November 28, 2011

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays

This evening, just a few short days after Thanksgiving and the unofficial start of the holiday season, I'm sitting here enjoying my first bowl of peppermint ice cream of 2011, listening to some Christmas music, and excited beyond words to share some great news with you all ...

Yes, that's my name on the byline ... I wrote a book! And better yet, the book is available right now ... but more on that in a minute.

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays is the second book in the new Pretty in Patchwork series by the publishing team at Lark Crafts. (Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts by my friend Cathy Gaubert was the first, and I still need to blog about my project from that fun book!)

Pretty in Patchwork brings together handmade items and original patterns and project ideas from a wide variety of sewists and quilters, all united under a single theme. The theme for my book, obviously, is the holidays -- and, more specifically, the harvest and winter holidays of November and December (including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah.)

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays features 32 (yes, 32!!) project tutorials from 22 of my favorite fellow crafters and bloggers. The projects range from small ornaments to pillows to quilts, with lots of great ideas in between. They are perfect both for gift ideas for others as well as plenty of great ideas to treat yourself, or to decorate your home for the holidays. From beginning to more advanced sewists, I worked hard to make sure there is something in this book for everyone.

Christmas in the City quilt by ... me!

OK, so this is the part of my post where I name drop. Here's the full list of contributors whose projects are featured in the book, all of whom I invited because I have mad respect for their skill, talent, and creativity:

I am very, very proud of this book. Not only do I feel like it's a wonderfully rich book (did I mention that it includes 32 project tutorials?!), but Lark has established a beautiful visual style with the new Pretty in Patchwork series. I hope that the images I've included in this post -- all taken directly from the book -- speak for themselves! And about those 32 projects, I can honestly say that I don't think there's a "filler" project among them.

Drawstring Gift Bags, another of my projects!

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays will be printed in the summer of 2012, but if you're inspired to sew up some holidays items this season, the book is already available in e-book format, perfect for computers, laptops, and iPads. The best part is that you can browse the entire book -- yes, you can preview ALL of the wonderful projects inside -- by visiting the Zinio page and clicking on the image of the book's cover. You can't zoom in close enough to see the full instructions, but you can literally flip through the entire book, enjoy the beautiful photography, and decide if this book's for you!

I'm quite glad that I sent off my Christmas list to my family before seeing this post, because if I hadn't, I would have added this book to my list, and I don't think I can wait that long to make this book mine!

You've touched a lot of hearts with this fantastic collection! I love your work, and have been waiting quite impatiently for it to come out. I even went to Amazon to see if I could pre-order it, but it's not there yet. I will be getting it one way or another!

Hi John Newbie question for ya (I'm a beginner to patchwork and to e readers!) - I've just bought your book from Zinio and I want to make the harvest vine table runner. How do I get the templates out of the e book ? The reader software doesn't indicate whether the screen is displaying @ 100% and printing appears to be disabled in the Zinio reader software. Am I to trace it off my computer screen? Could you possibly email me a PDF of the pattern piece for the harvest vine @ 100% of the size?Thanks so much for your help! It's a great book - I'm very much looking forward to getting stuck into the patterns.JoJo (Dublin, Ireland)